5 Signs Your Marketing Vendors are Ripping You Off

While it is a wise business
decision to employ marketing professionals to grow your business, be sure they
are all they are cracked up to be. Here are a couple of warning signs that your
marketing vendor may be ripping you off.

Find a new marketing agency
if:

1.They promise
you top rankings with the search engines from the start

Although
this is the ultimate goal for any search engine optimization, you must remember
that SEO is a process; and a long one at that! Results are not seen overnight.
Many things determine your ranking status including domain age, keyword
relevance and consistency throughout a website. There are “tricks” that can get
you listed at the top momentarily, but it may not be the right term. The old
adage, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” applies here.

2.They offer
you a website for $3,000 or less

While
this may seem like a great deal, chances are the website you will receive will
be nothing more than a few static pages of mish-mosh that you could have
generated yourself. An effective website has an associated cost in both time
and money. An experienced designer may charge more, but you’ll definitely get
more bang for your buck! Don’t skimp on this critical marketing tool.

3.They offer
you do-it-yourself tools like CMS, shopping carts, social networking and SEO

All
of these tools are constant ongoing processes which should be handled by a
professional to receive the best ROI. While I do recommend incorporating all of
them into your marketing plan, you probably don’t have the time to do this job
AND your current one.

4.They throw
around technical terms

Just
because you can talk the talk, doesn’t mean you can walk the walk. A good
marketing agency takes technical terms and translates them into words that
anyone can understand. As a marketing professional, you are not there to
impress them with the big words you know, you are there to help them understand
what you can do for them. The more technical the terms, the more likely something
fishy is going on.

5.They give
you automated or no reports on SEO

It’s
very simple to hand over an automated report to a client, or even better, no
report! But for you, as a client, how do you know you are actually getting the
services you are paying for? Your SEO specialists should be giving you a
personalized analysis report in words that you can understand, along with
suggestions to improve your status. Don’t get swindled on this highly effective
process.

So, how did your marketing
agency rate? Will you be looking for alternatives? Contact Netwave Interactive
Marketing at http://www.marketingagencynj.com. I ensure you, we passed the test!